“Chernobyl Cross” on screen

The forthcoming 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy is just another reason to remind the world about the consequences of the accident, take a look back and analyze what had happened. The Belarusians know the tragedy better than any other nation, for about 70% of radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl “nuclear explosion” hit this country 20 years ago. The documentary “Chernobyl Cross” produced by Belarusfilm studio will share the pain and awareness of Belarus with the whole world.
The film is being edited now. The author of the script, Vladimir Moroz, believes the running time of the documentary, just 52 minutes, may hardly be enough to cover the whole post-Chernobyl era and allow the viewer to hear out everyone who has something to say. Nevertheless, the documentary will present a wide range of opinions of officials, scientists and ordinary people about the accident and its aftermath for Belarus.

The director of the film, Anatoly Alai, the leading documentarian of the “Letapis” studio, took part in “liquidating the consequences of the accident” back in 1986. It was at that time that he shot the documentary “Misfortune that Hit Everyone”, but it was severely censored and banned from screens. Many films were lost or destroyed, especially those that showed the soldiers cleaning contaminated villages without even gas masks. The film unit had five people then, but only Anatoly Alai lived. He survived all of his colleagues to watch the historic documentary again and again and include some of the footage in “Chernobyl Cross”.

Twenty years have passed, and scientists are ready to tell the truth about the disaster, progress and bad mistakes. The former director of the Institute of Radiobiology, Slava Firsakova, believes it was unnecessary to remove the upper layer of the polluted soil before November 1986, as the reactor had been spitting a 1.8 kilometer high radioactive stream into the air.

The documentary will also focus on the efforts of this country to overcome the consequences of the tragedy. Although Chernobyl expenses are immense, Belarus has proved strong enough to stand up to the impact. President Alexander Lukashenko has taken many Chernobyl issues under his personal control.

The film “Chernobyl Cross” will be showed for the first time in April, on the eve of the Chernobyl anniversary.

by Irina Rozhumovich